Have to submit this because I’m being all ranty. Sorry. If I make any technical mistakes, or say something stupid, please correct me.
I don’t think that any religion/belief system in and of itself can be sexist/racist/homophobic. It’s the people that exploit the power of religion and belief that make it so. I wrote a paper last summer about the role of women in religions. Obviously, as I’m an Atheist, I know nothing of the personal beliefs of any Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, etc…, but I tried to give them all a culturally relative perspective. Islam was probably the least sexist of them all. I think part of that comes from the fact that, as far as I’m aware, the Qur’an is really only “valid” when it’s in Arabic. Unlike the Bible, it hasn’t been translated hundreds of times, and hasn’t had rulers changing it to fit their agendas every hundred years or so.
When people talk about how oppressive Islam is towards women, I think what they mean to say is that some societies are oppressive (according to Western standards. I have no right to say someone in another part of the world is being oppressed). This has nothing to do with the religion itself. It has to do with the people and governments that twist it to fit what they need. The same thing has happened with every major religion, and it will continue to happen until every sentient being is gone.
My personal belief system is science. Science is not skewed towards any sex, race, sexual preference (actually, it may be slightly skewed towards heterosexuality if you’re looking at it from a reproductive point of view), etc… That doesn’t mean that it’s NOT about a thousand times more difficult for a woman scientist with the same qualifications as a man to get a job. This is not science’s fault. This is a human fault.
tl;dr? Don’t fucking tell people what their religion/beliefs mean. Just because you think it’s sexist doesn’t mean it is. Only the oppressed have a right to cry oppression.
<3
(Source: faineemae)
